


The Grass gets Greener

by YaBoyGuzma3



Series: Harry Potter and the Schemes of the Magi [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Could Be Canon, Hogwarts Fourth Year, My First Work in This Fandom, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:21:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28840062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YaBoyGuzma3/pseuds/YaBoyGuzma3
Summary: In which Draco and Astoria meet for the first time, as a confrontation occurs between the Slytherins
Relationships: Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy
Series: Harry Potter and the Schemes of the Magi [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2152959
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	The Grass gets Greener

Harry Potter’s fourth year was not going well. He had been named Hogwarts champion of the Triwizard Tournament, even though he never entered, and so now everyone in the school either hated him or tolerated him. It was made even worse by being abandoned by his best friend Ron Weasley, who believed that he had somehow cheated to get chosen. What was bothering him now, however, was the crowd of Slytherins which were proudly showing off large green badges with the words “Potter Stinks” enchanted to pop right out of the metal. Draco Malfoy was front and centre in said crowd.

“Brilliant, aren’t they, Potter?” he yelled. Next to him, Pansy Parkinson had a basket full of them, and was handing a badge out to any passers-by. Harry tried to push past them and head away, but they wouldn’t let up. He wanted to try and lose them by a corridor to the left, but a Beauxbatons boy was there talking to Madame Maxine and Professor Snape, and so Harry couldn’t use that direction. Instead, he found himself in one of the many courtyards of Hogwarts. The crowd were about to start flashing their badges when they heard the doors to Flitwick’s room open, and a group of second-years emerged from it.

Harry and Malfoy turned around and noticed, amongst the crowd now leaving the nearest classroom, a single Slytherin not wearing a “Potter Stinks” badge. She was with the other second-years, though far taller than her peers. Pansy was already starting to move towards her with a basket in her hands. As she did so, an expression of pure fear emerged on her face.

“Um...hello, Pansy...” she mumbled into her green scarf.

“Hi, Astoria. See you haven’t picked up one of these yet,” Pansy smirked, pulling a badge out of the basket.

“Oh...um...I haven’t...I don’t have any money...sorry.” Astoria stammered, her hands gripped tightly in her pockets. It wasn’t just that she was afraid, Harry thought, she looked  _ freezing cold. _

“Oh, it’s alright, they’re free!” Pansy squealed, turning her so they were facing Harry and Malfoy. “Look, there he is now! Come over and help us get our message across!”

Astoria followed Pansy’s finger until seeing Harry and Malfoy, at which point her eyes went as wide as dinner plates.“That’s really...uhh...I have to go to Transfiguration now, and… don’t want to be late...you know what McGonagall’s like, and...” she trailed off, looking fiercely at the floor.

“C’mon now, every Slytherin needs to get a dig on Potter at  _ some  _ point!” Pansy said, grabbing Astoria and pulling her over towards the others. “It’s the easiest thing in the-”

“Oi!”

Out of another entrance marched another Slytherin, who Harry recognised as Daphne Greengrass, who was actually in several of his classes. In all that time, however, Harry had never seen her like this, and from the look of things, neither had Malfoy, nor the crowd of Slytherins around him. She marched over to Pansy and pulled Astoria away from her, pointing her own wand at Pansy.

“I thought I told you not to touch her.” Daphne spat, venom in every syllable.

“Daph, please-” Astoria tried, to no avail.

“Tori, it’s alright. You’ve nothing to worry about.” She said, before turning to face Malfoy. His eyes twitched ever-so-slightly. “Right then Draco, what in Merlin’s greasy-”

“Daph, he didn’t do anything!” Astoria yelled in a surprisingly loud voice. Daphne looked at Malfoy, then at Astoria. Suddenly, Malfoy garnered the courage to speak.

“Um, yes, I didn’t, I would never, of course.” he said, quickly flicking the hair out of his eye. Daphne nodded at him, before turning to face Harry.

“And what about you?” she asked, flicking the wand at his face. “What’s the Hogwarts champion doing here?”

Harry scowled slightly. “Nothing. This lot was holding me up.” he replied, noticing suddenly that Astoria bore a strong resemblance to Daphne. He eyed her wand carefully. It was like nothing he had ever seen. It was a long, crooked, uncut stick, and a strange purplish black.

“W-we were just handing out these badges.” Malfoy explained. “Pansy was trying to...um…”

Pansy looked at the crowd, her imminent doom now obvious to everyone. “W-w-well...I wondered if she wanted one, is all, and if she wanted to come and...laugh at Potter with us, and she said no, so I did her a favour and-”

“ _ Bracchia Genuverto! _ ” boomed Daphne.

There was a very loud  _ crack, _ and Pansy was sent rocketing backward. Impossibly, Daphne seemed to have just performed 2 hexes at once, Harry noticed, as Pansy not only found her knees reversed, so her feet were now pointing behind her, but small black tentacles were now protruding from her nostrils and ears. Daphne coughed a little, smirked and put her wand away. She turned to face Harry.

“I’d leave now if I were you, Potter. Professor Snape's most likely to pin this on you.” she said quietly.

Harry nodded in return and departed, leaving Malfoy speechless. As he left, Harry turned and watched the crowd of Slytherins disperse. Astoria looked at Malfoy.

“I...sorry if that..” she suddenly paused, letting out a few chesty coughs. “Um, sorry about...My sister, she’s...”

“It’s alright. Not your fault.” Malfoy reassured her. “You’re Astoria Greengrass, right?”

“Yeah, um...I am.” she muttered, nodding.

“Mm, your sister mentioned you.” he explained. “You’re a second-year, right?”

“Yes! The height tends to throw people off.” She replied, “I mean, I was born on the first of September, so...”

“Right, right...”Malfoy said.“Um...you’d best go. Don’t want to keep McGonagall waiting.”

Astoria nodded rapidly. “No, yes, thank you, bye!” she whispered hoarsely, before running off, still coughing as she did so. Malfoy gave a small smile, as Daphne dragged Pansy over to Crabbe and Goyle, both of whom had wide-open mouths.

“Be a dear and get her to the hospital wing, would you?” she asked, whispering slightly. “Oh, and...Pansy? Do that again, and I’ll put a whole Squid in your stomach.”

Malfoy stood back as the crowd dispersed, and Pansy hobbled out of sight. Harry watched him shake his head, and walk off. He wasn’t entirely sure what he had just witnessed, though it made sense. He could imagine how the Weasleys would react if anyone tried to hurt Ginny, for instance. In fact, he’d probably help them out with whatever scheme they came up with. What interested him the most from that exchange was Malfoy. He had never,  _ never  _ seen him act the way he did towards Astoria with anyone, not even Pansy. He seemed... _ genuine. _

***   
“But that’s impossible!”

That night, in the Great Hall, news of Pansy’s ‘makeover’ had spread throughout the school. Harry was relaying what he had seen to Hermione, while Ron had sat himself on the far end of Gryffindor table.

“Harry, she can’t have! You’ve described two separate hexes! It can’t have been one spell!” Hermione exclaimed.

“Well, that’s what happened. It was honestly pretty amazing.” Harry admitted. “Pansy didn’t even have time to counter.”

“Well, it’s certainly a fascinating use of magic...” she thought out loud. “Astoria and Daphne Greengrass both seem to have strange powers, and I imagine that’s why Daphne had such an odd wand. But...”

“They’re one of those old pureblood families.” Neville explained, “But they’re a lot less...vocal about the whole thing.”

“You said after using it, they both looked exhausted, and had to whisper, right?” Hermione asked. Harry nodded in reply. “I wonder...”

Neville suddenly started pointing, and the two others turned to the Slytherin table. There, Malfoy was sitting near the Greengrasses. He seemed to be talking to Astoria about something. What was odd was that Malfoy had a huge smile on his face. Not a smirk, but a true smile. It just looked...strange; Harry didn’t think he’d ever seen him like this. He wasn’t used to it.

“Why’s she wearing a scarf?” Hermione asked aloud, “It’s boiling in here.”

“I don’t know. Maybe she just gets cold easily. She was wearing it earlier too.”

Looking back at the table, Harry realised for the first time how truly frail she looked. She was slightly thin, and was even paler than Malfoy, which was saying something. She seemed to be smiling too, and Harry watched her pull out her own wand. It was just like Daphne’s. They watched as she went back into her pocket and pulled out a white potion, which she drank before even touching the food.

“Interesting…” said Hermione, before turning to her own plate. Harry did too, but not before noticing that Malfoy was no longer wearing his “Potter Stinks” badge.


End file.
